Honey I Shrunk Ubuntu

Canonical is tightening its focus on cloud and enterprise markets. The company has released a new version of Ubuntu, dubbed Minimal Ubuntu, which it claims is optimized for automated use at scale, with a tiny package set and minimal security cross-section.

Canonical claims that Minimal Ubuntu is the smallest Ubuntu base image for cloud operations. These images are less than 50% the size of the standard Ubuntu server image and boot up to 40% faster.

Despite its reduced size, Minimal Ubuntu retains full compatibility with standard Ubuntu. Any Ubuntu package can be installed on Minimal Ubuntu.

The DVD attached to this issue brings you a pair of the world’s most popular Linux distributions. Mint 15 “Olivia” is the latest release from the ever-friendly Linux Mint, a desktop distro based on Debian and Ubuntu that keeps the emphasis on simplicity and ease of use. Mint tops the DistroWatch downloads list and describes itself as: “The 4th most popular home operating system after Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, and Canonical’s Ubuntu.”

This month’s DVD lets you test the latest release from the popular Linux Mint project. Linux Mint 13 “Maya” is based on Ubuntu 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” and thus is compatible with the Ubuntu repositories.

What's the top distro on the famous Distrowatch page hit ranking list? Not Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, or Fedora. According the Distrowatch, the hottest Linux is none other than Linux Mint – an Ubuntu-based, community-driven desktop system that is known for ease of use and efficient out-of-the-box multimedia functionality.